In what direction goes the youth sports? Try&Enjoy, try and have fun is the answer by UISP (the largest Italian Sport for All organization. For three days, from June 6 to 8, UISP will be present at TheJamBo, animating Fiera di Bologna with the activities of urban freestyle like skate, parkour, tricking, speedbol, tree climbing, biking , half pipe and basketball. In a mix of sports and music, metro art and public meetings will be possible to discover and try out these new expressions of movement, which are considered a lifestyle by the crew of practitioners all over the world.
Are sports the urban freestyle? “I think so, because they have all the features – responds Alberto Cei, sport psychologist – are skilled expressions of movement. They involve to take risks and therefore require to be focused on the tasks and fast decision-making capacity, as well as coordination and balance. There are other components, such as ability to adapt to a changing environment.”
“Those who practice this kind of sport, I think parkour for example, have learned to move knowing to take a calculated dose of risk – Cei responds and on Friday, June 6, at TheJamBo, will coordinate the roundtable on the realities of the European freestyle – are also activities exciting, where it comes out the ability to manage the emotions. One of the things that intrigues me most is the ability to learn on their own practice of these activities. The fact of being able to exercise outdoors and in the streets is a form of re-appropriation of spaces in the city. Like it was when we were kids in the ’60s, when you could play freely in the street.”
What does it happen in the European countries on this subject? With this question will be open the roundtable: What is the attitude of the public institutions in the cities where these activities are not favored and hindered? At the roundtable will attend different European groups like: Sk8boarder ASBL (Brussels), Team Jiyo (Copenhagen), Jump’in City (Lyon) and KRaP (Italy).
(By Ivano Maiorella)
